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Saturday 14 December 2013

Atlantis 1.11 "Hunger Pangs" Review

                                           
This episode was seen as more of a break from some of the more serious episodes during the past weeks, when Hercules (Mark Addy) was about to give his life in sacrifice to save his beloved Medusa (Jemima Roper) and for the two part season finale to come. I wasn't actually going to write a review for this but have been persuaded, okay a little arm twisting on the part of friends!  But funny it should be this episode!  I'm saying nothing more!

Seems that hunger has caught up with Jason (Jack Donnelly) once again as he tries to buy some bread but the seller's owed money by Hercules who hasn't paid him for three weeks, so what's new? Ha.  There's some leftover bread to feed the pigs so Jason steals it and is chased by the seller, so who's minding the stall now?  Anyone could have stolen the rest of his loaves.  The bread ends up in the fountain and falls to pieces as Jason discovers a prime cut of meat in a hut which looked suspiciously like a temple/shrine.

Meanwhile Hercules is drowning his sorrows in the tavern as he drinks himself silly to forget not having Medusa, so how does he pay for that then?  Pythagoras (Robert Emms) tells him they'll find a cure for her, not likely.  Jason returns home and finds his friends aren't there but he can't resist the meat so he cooks it and devours it entirely; having to hide the evidence when Pythagoras returns without Hercules cos he refuses to take him home.  He can smell cooked meat but Jason throws the plate out when Hercules arrives home. Hey at least it hit someone down in the street below.

Jason leaves the house at night and wakes up with the chickens, which is where the laughs come in and Jason of course in the buff! Using only a chicken for coverage, as he hopes you "don't peck me there."  Funny the wolf he turned into didn't eat all the chickens.  Poor woman who set eyes upon him in the market, but coincidentally, or not, she had to be old! Ha.  Jason arrives home in the buff still and (and by next ep he'll get his clothes back, which he stole to begin with when he arrives in Atlantis)  is stared at by Hercules who covers Pythagoras's eyes but he manages to look too!  Really.

He doesn't know what happened to him and Pythagoras gets it out of him though when he tells him he ate the meat.  Pythagoras's search of the place leads him to deduce it's the shrine dedicated to Hecate, the Goddess of witchcraft.  He also searches for a cure for him as he escapes again that night and attacks a goat.  This is reported to Heptarian (Oliver Walker) at the palace but they find it hard to believe that such a creature could be on the loose.  Also at the place just to show us King Minos (Alexander Siddig) is getting worse and is still being poisoned by Pasiphae (Sarah Parish).

Pythagoras is at the library and looks through the scrolls and finally finds a cure.  As Hercules shoves Jason into the secret hole without any clothes of course!  They need silver but don't have any, except for Ariadne (Aiysha Hart) who does. Hercules gives her a note and she gathers silver for them.  But they can't meet her at the temple cos the man who hired them to clear his stockroom of rats takes them prisoner until they complete the task.  Allowing Hercules to eat all the food there.  They miss their meeting with Ariadne and it's hard to believe she passes them on the street without seeing them.  Not very alert or aware for someone who's sneaked out alone.  Heading to their home she finds Jason in the buff, cos you know you really open the door without clothes on!  He doesn't let her in since it's nearly dusk and begins to change.  Yes it's the scene from Carry on Screaming -almost!  Funny it's the hairs that grow first on his hands.

Hercules and Pythagoras arrive back and hustle Jason in the other room where he makes noises, he's afraid of the dark, Hercules tells her, yeah like he hasn't been out in the dark before to see her.  Jason escapes and Pythagoras melts the silver which he must drink, surprised that silver didn't solidify back when they left it there overnight.  Chasing after Jason who is also pursued by Heptarian as they find he attacked some guards. Probably his search would have doubly intensified had he known who he was in search for.  They manage to lock him in a room and take him home the next day where he's given the cure.  He hopes he didn't say anything to Ariadne and the others make growling noises mimicking him.

Next episode Jason has to recall his promise to kill Pasiphae, as I said, they forgot that storyline.  Also hasn't anyone missed Jason back home?  A fun episode like I said to lead into the darker events of the last two eps.  Don't know about you but Ariadne seems like a loose end and half the time really doesn't have a clue what she's doing and comes across a bit dense.  Can she really trust her new servant?
Pythagoras gets to think of inventing a device to tell the time and comes up with a pendulum, spending the entire night thinking whilst keeping an eye on Jason.  But he didn't attack his friends when he turned the first night he was back and left the place to hunt when he had food right there.  Seems he only hunted animals!

Heptarian's scenes were rather uneventful as he didn't even get to catch the beast in all his false modesty. Oh and before anyone asks Jack wasn't entirely naked as he said he had a double sided tape and a piece of material to conceal his modesty!

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